NEW DELHI: News
Channels have seen exponential growth over
the last few years and can still "find
the pot of gold, but from a long term
perspective, will have to focus on higher
subscription revenues, speakers at The Indian
News Television Summit 2007 said here today.

Audience share has increased from less than
one per cent in 2000 to seven - eight per
cent as the genre has exploded with over 40
channels beaming news content. The genre
has taken away viewers from the general entertainment
channels and brought in new advertisers. News
channels have the people to take this pot
of gold forward, Tam India CEO LV Krishnan
said.
The pace of growth is set to accelerate as
over 40 applications are waiting for clearance
from the information and broadcasting ministry.
NDTV, in fact, is expecting a 20 per cent
year-on-year growth.

New sources of revenue are still
to be tapped like content syndication, overseas
expansion and internet presence. Besides,
there is scope for local news channels with
sectors like retail seeing rapid growth,
said NDTV Media CEO Raj Nayak.

Agreed Starcom Mediavest Group CEO South
Asia Ravi Kiran, We will see dramatic
changes in the way news is going to be consumed
over the next three -five years. Media organizations
will need to gather, aggregate and distribute
news.

The session on Searching for revenues:
Advertising and Distribution, Finding the
pot of gold was moderated by Indiantelevision.com
editorial director Thomas Abraham.

The digital era will throw open more revenue
opportunities for news channels. There
will be subscription opportunities. News
and sports, for instance, will drive Mobile
TV. In the digital era, however, brands
will be important, said SET Discovery
president Anuj Gandhi.

Al Jazeera Network director - global distribution
Phil Lawrie said that it would be interesting
to see how business models are going to
evolve in India in a digital environment.

However, Hinduja TMT president - corporate
services Ashok Mansukhani wasnt too
bullish on the potential to accommodate
so many news channels. The Cas (conditional
access system) data shows that consumers
are not willing to pay for news channels.
And on analogue cable TV, there is a distribution
cost. It remains to be seen how this battle
for the marketplace is going to shape up,
he said.